Around the Traps

Jesuits denounce threats against outspoken priest
MEXICO CITY (CNS): The Society of Jesus has denounced threats made against an outspoken Jesuit Father Ismael Moreno Coto, from Honduras, who has highlighted accusations of widespread irregularities in the Central American country’s recent presidential election.

In a 30 December 2017 statement, the Conference of Provincials in Latin America and the Caribbean said that the social media hostilities against Father Coto­—better known as Padre Melo—were “reminiscent of the death threats which circulated in El Salvador before the murder of Jesuit Father Rutilio Grande,” who was murdered in 1977.

The Jesuits also defended eight other regional advocates who were threatened.

“All of the accusations are lies aimed at counteracting the grassroots organising and the peaceful and democratic resistance which the accused, along with the people of Honduras, are carrying out at a moment when the popular vote has been disrespected by John Orlando Hernandez and his allies,” the statement said, referring to the incumbent president and official electoral victor.

“This is an attempt to create terror in the people as a strategy to demobilise them,” the statement said, “We hold Juan Orlando Hernandez and his allies responsible for the safety and physical and moral well-being of the nine people falsely accused.”

March for peace in Italy
Sotto il Monte (CWNews): Continuing a 50-year-old tradition, the Church in Italy held a national march for peace on December 31.

Pax Christi, Caritas Italiana, and Catholic Action joined the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Diocese of Bergamo in sponsoring the event.

This year’s two-mile march attracted 1,000 people and concluded in Sotto il Monte, the small town in Lombardy, northern Italy where Pope St. John XXIII was born and the site of the first national march for peace. Participants reflected on the theme of Pope Francis’s message for the World Day of Peace: Migrants and refugees: men and women in search of peace.

Shock in Congo after protest deaths
KINSHASA (CNS): Church leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo expressed shock after security forces fired on protesters on 31 December 2017, leaving at least eight dead and 120 people detained.

The New Year’s Eve protest against rule of president, Joseph Kabila, was organised by the Kinshasa archdiocesan lay coordination committee.

At least a dozen priests were among those detained.

“We condemn with utmost vigour this unjustified violence,” the Congolese Bishops’ Conference said in a statement on January 2.

“We similarly denounce this attack on freedom of worship, which is guaranteed in every democratic state, as well as the profanation of churches and physical aggression against the faithful and their priests,” the statement said.

The bishops were “profoundly shocked by such ignoble acts,” and would demand a “serious and objective inquiry” into who was responsible. Police used tear gas and batons against Mass-goers in some of the capital’s 150 parishes and violently broke up attempted marches in which protesters demanded fresh elections in the country.

Don’t confess other people’s faults
VATICAN CITY (CNS:) Fear and the shame of admitting one’s own sins leads to pointing fingers and accusing others rather than recognising one’s own faults, said on January 3 at his first general audience of the new year.

“It is difficult to admit being guilty, but it does so much good to confess with sincerity. But you must confess your own sins,” the pope said.

“I remember a story an old missionary would tell about a woman who went to confession and she began by telling her husband’s faults, then went on to her mother-in-law’s faults and then the sins of her neighbours. At a certain point, the confessor told her, ‘But ma’am, tell me, are you done?’ ‘No... Yes.’ ‘Great, you have finished with other people’s sins, now start to tell me yours,’” he said.

The pope was continuing his series of talks on the Mass, reflecting on the penitential rite.

Pope visits children’s hostpital
FIUMICINO (CNS): On January 5, the eve of the feast of the Epiphany when most Italian children wake up to find gifts and candy, Pope Francis visited the Palidoro Bambino Gesu Hospital outside Rome.

The pope visited the various wards where about 120 children are receiving treatment, according to the Vatican Press Office.

He greeted the children and “exchanged some words of comfort with the parents who are caring for their children in their tiring and painful trials,” the statement said.